Many small businesses like the Stepping Razor hang signs in their windows opposing the business improvement district.
The group that hired Li Mandri to come to New Bedford, DNB Inc., wanted him to start a business improvement district, also known as a BID. After a few months of trying, Li Mandri couldn’t get enough support from property owners to form the downtown BID. His firm, New City America, later said that small property owners and their tenants “were uniformly opposed.” But Li Mandri decided to put down roots in New Bedford anyway.
Li Mandri has already set up 95 business improvement districts in the U.S., and there are thousands more BIDs in cities and towns across the country, including eight in other parts of Massachusetts. In her remarks, Newman-Arruda said the BID will give New Bedford’s top landowners a more direct way of controlling what goes on downtown. She fears they’ll use that power to hire private security to patrol the district, and pressure people they consider undesirable to leave.also recently featured a picture of Li Mandri’s face in an Instagram story. The word “EVIL” was scrawled across his forehead.
“You know, take away the creativity, and the character of the city — of people that have lived here, worked here, and also helped rebuild the city together.” Fazio said. “We all did that.” Tompkins said he’s seen some BIDs accelerate gentrification, and others nurture and protect what a community already values. Tompkins said the direction a BID takes is determined by who’s on the board, and what their priorities are.
“Have I ever had this type of opposition?” Li Mandri asked during a recent interview. “No,” he answered, “because I’ve never been confronted with people that put out so many half truths and lies.”
Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: Collider - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »